Cal football donors cutting NIL funding until new GM Ron Rivera given full control of program

California hired former NFL coach Ron Rivera March 20 as the general manager of its football program. Two weeks later, two of the university’s biggest athletics boosters announced they will not donate another dime to the Bears until Rivera is put in full control of the football program. Cal coach Justin Wilcox answers directly to athletic director Jim Knowlton while Rivera primarily focuses on revenue generation and fundraising.

“You don’t hire Mario Andretti and ask him to sit in the passenger seat, right?” Kevin Kennedy, the president of California Legends Collective, told SFGATE. “There’s a reason that you bring someone like that on staff: In order to give him control.”